Beautiful tintypes from the front line

Ed Drewis a staff
sergeant in the California Air National Guard. He's also an artist who
taught himself to make tintypes, a type of photography last in vogue during
the 1860s and 1870s.

The images you see here were all made between combat missions during Drew's
tour of duty last year. While taking some, he had to drop what he was doing
to sprint for the Search and Rescue helicopter. "If somebody's injured,
we have to get them," he says. "I would go from art to combat in a
matter of seconds. It was like flicking a light switch."